Bike polo is on a wild ride (with photos and video)

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It’s a mild, slightly hazy Sunday afternoon in early March, and the rain that’s been predicted hasn’t materialized. On a concrete court in Grandview Park, six people on bikes chase a hard orange ball with mallets.

Some wear helmets with face guards, others wear toques. The standard outfit seems to be shorts over tights and T-shirts.

A familiar sight to Commercial Drive residents, members of East Van Bike Polo club have been chasing that ball in the neighbourhood since 2006.

The sport has been growing in popularity. Now there are tournaments all over the world.

“It’s one of the fastest growing sports out there,” Jacqueline Kanyuk said. “Another player said (to me): ‘Think about snowboarding in the ’80s.’ That’s the kind of growth we’re experiencing.”

Before taking up bike polo, Kanyuk was a runner and cyclist and had played Ultimate Frisbee. She is now the East Van Bike Polo club’s community liaison coordinator.

When she started playing three years ago, she says, the local bike polo community was already “fairly large, healthy.” Today, she estimates there are 40-50 who play periodically and 25 who play every week.

The original version of the sport goes back to the late 1800s. The first cycle polo matches were played on grass in Ireland in 1891 and it was a demonstration sport in the 1908 London Olympics.

But hardcourt bike polo, the kind growing in popularity today, can be traced back to off-duty Seattle bike couriers in 1999, according to the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Association (NAH). Today there are close to 200 clubs in North America.

“It has Cascadia roots,” Kanyuk said. “There have been OGs, Old Guards, playing since the beginning in Seattle.”

Head to the courts

Vancouver player Rory Crowley, 34, started playing in 2007 after a friend invited him to watch a match.

“He got really excited about it. I was a little bit on the fence,” recalls Crowley. “But then we built mallets the next week and started playing. Now it’s years later and I’m still doing it.”

The court at Grandview, completed in 2011, is the first bike polo-specific court in the world (there have been more built since). It’s definitely provided a boost to the city’s bike poloists.

“Ideally, we have a presence there from playing regularly,” Crowley said. “When we didn’t have a court, when Grandview Park was being graded, we tried to play in other places, especially in hockey and lacrosse boxes. There would be a big conflict with those user groups.”

Pickup games are played at Grandview on weekend afternoons. On Monday nights, teams gather under the lights at the tennis courts behind Britannia Secondary for tournament-style games.

Rules of the game

Bike polo teams are divided into threes. A regular game lasts about 15 minutes (a tournament game, 12 minutes not counting overtime) or first team to score five points. Players improvise wheel coverings for their bikes to avoid getting the ball lodged in their spokes.

“The sport is still so young. People are still figuring out the format,” said bike courier Andrew Gillis, 28, who has been playing for two years.

There are attempts underway to formalize the game. A game that started without rules now has an 18-page rule book, courtesy of NAH.

“Back in the day, there were no refs,” Crowley said. “It was just a rule of being a nice person out on the court. Also there are a lot more people playing now. Furthermore, we have a court at Grandview Park, which is a big change from playing on old broken-down tennis courts.”

East Van Bike Polo differs from clubs in other cities in having a strong coed aspect.

“There’s a large, I think probably a third, female component of our group, whereas some clubs seem to be more male-dominated,” Crowley said.

Since hardcourt bike polo started, it’s been coed, says Kanyuk.

“There are mixed teams, male teams, female teams. The ratio of female-to-male is higher than in most clubs. We’re very diverse in terms of age, gender and socioeconomic background.”

Competing globally

Vancouver has been competitive globally. Bike polo has taken Crowley all over the world, including Argentina, Colombia, Germany, England, Switzerland, Spain and “all through the United States.”

Crowley and his team The Crazy Canucks won the 2011 World Bike Polo Championships in Seattle. Mostly, he’s had to spend his own money to travel and play.

Kanyuk would like to see more sponsorship and more supporters for the sport.

This year, the sixth annual all-women’s tournament, Ladies Army, is in Toronto in June, and the North American championships are in Minneapolis in July. The world championships are in Montpellier, France in August.

“All the higher competitor players are looking to fundraise to get to these things,” Kanyuk said.

At least one Vancouver team, The Family, will be entering the world championships, helped along by sponsorship from East Vancouver’s Bomber Brewing.

“Our marketing guy Cam Andrews met one of the guys in here, having a beer,” Bomber owner Don Farion said. “We’re going to help them get there. They’ll be flying the Bomber flag over in France.”

Kanyuk would also like to see more courts — “at least two, and three would be ideal” — and smoother, cleaner surfaces, especially now that the level of playing is improving. “Cracks can be quite dangerous at the speeds we do in tournament play.”

Fun for all

Both Kanyuk and Crowley talk about keeping the game accessible. Especially on Sunday afternoons, casual players and the curious are encouraged to drop by and, if they like what they see, join in.

“I’m at the point where I want to see it continue to be fun, to be inclusive for community members but also to allow for different levels of play,” Crowley said.

“We don’t expect people to convert their own bikes, we let people use our bikes; we just want people to enjoy it as much as we do,” Kanyuk said.

When she first tried bike polo — in a covered parking lot in Nanaimo — she was “really terrible,” she said.

“But I had a great time, and then felt the compulsion for chasing the ball on my bike with a stick, with a mallet. Ever since then I’ve played non-stop.

“I can’t really describe the feeling or the compulsion of wanting to play more and more. Luckily there’s an entire community out there that feels the same way. If I could, I would be out five, six times a week.”

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Bike polo is on a wild ride (with photos and video)

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